Norfolk and Portsmouth long ago developed the few acceptable reservoir sites available and even those are quite small when compared to the large populations and military facilities that depend upon them. Virginia Beach funded a study to identify impacts from a disastrous breach of a mine's containment system, perhaps in a rain event comparable to Hurricane Camille in 1969. The coal ash spill was comparable to just 4% of the volume used in the modeling of the potential uranium spill. Both reservoirs are owned and operated by Virginia Power. Kerr Reservoir is owned and operated by the federal government. average electric generation of the John H. Kerr Reservoir. The City has purchased 10,200 acre feet of storage in Kerr Reservoir from the federal government to provide these augmented flows into Lake Gaston during dry periods. The VDEQ has also participated in all of the federal regulatory and environmental reviews of the project and has consistently indicated that the Lake Gaston Project was the best alternative to the water shortage problem in southeast Virginia.
11. When the 50-year Federal license for the Gaston Dam was scheduled to expire in 2001, the state of North Carolina tried to force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to block relicensing unless the interbasin transfer by Virginia Beach was ended. July 1987: Order and Memorandum Opinion from the Federal District Court in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The top five options considered most closely were:10, Drilling new wells was one obvious option.
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Norfolk, Virginia 1:250,000 scale topographic map (1953), The Corps of Engineers and Dominion Power synchronize operation of water releases from different dams. *For more information about the High Rock Lake area, visit High-Rock.com.
Therefore, the project does reduce flows downstream of the Roanoke Rapids Dam in North Carolina. This fall, Mother Nature ramped up the rainfall, sending two hurricanes and some other significant rain events our way (and also way up river in the Roanoke River watershed). This is approximately 120 percent of the These pits take anywhere from one to two years to refill, depending upon weather conditions. It concluded that any large-scale development of that aquifer would cause serious draw downs in the aquifer resulting in salt water intrusion, brackish water upconing, and the failure of thousands of private wells. This ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed claiming that the December 1983 EA was flawed. However, the new cities had limited access to the remaining surface water in southern Hampton Roads; the older cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth had previously developed the surface water sources. The two cities ended up with a integrated system that requires perpetual cooperation.7, most of Lake Gaston is in North Carolina - but the arm where Pea Hill Creek was flooded extends into Virginia,
What are Riparian Water Rights?Riparian water rights are property rights which attach to land that has water flowing upon it.
The Virginia legislature was paralyzed by partisan bickering, but regional politics were also involved:6, route of Lake Gaston pipeline, crossing Meherrin River, Nottoway River and Blackwater River watershed divides In a project that required 30 years of planning and lawsuits (with only a short portion of that time required for actual construction), Virginia Beach partnered with the City of Chesapeake to pipe water from Lake Gaston, out of the Roanoke River basin to customers in Hampton Roads. When the cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach committed to using the Roanoke River as their water source, the two Hampton Roads cities developed a permanent interest in the Roanoke River watershed upstream of Lake Gaston. What is the Lake Gaston Water Supply Project?The Lake Gaston Water Supply Project is a facility that can transfer a maximum of 60 million gallons per day (mgd) of water from a series of hydro-electric and flood control impoundments on the Roanoke River to southeast Virginia.
What types of activities were necessary to implement the Lake Gaston Project?There were seven major areas involved in bringing about the full implementation of the project. What is local consent and what is the status?The Lake Gaston pipeline passes through six jurisdictions. However, that measure was designed primarily to reassure the public that local drinking water would be unaffected by potentially toxic materials in the coal ash. Do property owners around Kerr Reservoir or Lake Gaston have riparian water rights?No, although some may think they do. The James River Basin Plan recommended Lake Gaston as the best overall solution to the water supply problem in southeastern Virginia.
The City of Virginia Beach withdraws the water at the lower end of Lake Gaston at Pea Hill Creek, thus maintaining the level of Lake Gaston between elevations 199 to 200 feet while still extracting sufficient water for the urban customers. The level of Kerr Reservoir/Buggs Island Lake is lowered slightly each day when the city's water is released into Lake Gaston as needed, and then pumped out of Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach. So much coal ash poured into the river that the Dan River turned gray in Dancville, and ash coated the Dan and Roanoke river bottoms for 70 miles downstream all the way to the Kerr Reservoir. We go into Flood Operations when the Corps decides it has to release a lot of water from Kerr (20,000 cubic feet per second or more). 7. The Department of Commerce determined that the Lake Gaston project was needed, that it would not have significant impacts on the environment and that there were no other practical alternatives with less environmental impacts.
Lake Gaston is a 20,000-acre artificial lake, roughly 40% the size of Kerr Reservoir just upstream and 450% larger than Roanoke Rapids Lake downstream. Within two days, Virginia Beach stopped pumping water from Lake Gaston.
Kerr Reservoir (known in Virginia as Buggs Island Lake) was created by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1952 for flood control and hydropower. State law required Virginia Beach to obtain a number of governmental consents from these jurisdictions. Please enable scripts and reload this page. The bulk of Norfolk's water supply constitutes an inter-basin transfer of water from the Chowan and Nansemond River Basins. Why doesn't the City use water stored in borrow pits to solve its water supply problems?The typical borrow pit in Virginia Beach has only about 100 million gallons of usable water. At Lake Gaston, upstream from most tributaries in North Carolina, an even higher percentage is runoff from Virginia.
The US Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates Kerr dam and is responsible for flood control in the Roanoke River basin. Virginia Beach has paid the federal government for the use of storage in Kerr Reservoir and an easement agreement with Virginia Power provides that Virginia Beach reimburses Virginia Power for energy lost as a result of the diversion of water from Lake Gaston. At maximum withdrawal, the project will reduce average flows below Roanoke Rapids Dam in North Carolina by about one percent. 12. When Virginia Beach and Chesapeake became independent cities in 1963, they expected rapid population growth. There is In contrast, the Roanoke Rapids project is managed to generate power at times of peak demand. February 1990: Order and Memorandum Opinion from the Federal District Court in Raleigh, North Carolina. Even the best operated sea water desalting plants are reliable only about 85 to 90 percent of the time and quite often technical problems can lower that figure. At a top level, the primary purpose of Kerr Lake is flood control (other purposes include power generation and recreation). Both reservoirs were formed by dams built on the Roanoke River.
Overview of presentation at LGA's Annual meeting on 6/11/16 and links to videos.
North Carolina lodged a CZMA objection to the FERC approval for the Gaston project. Eight alternatives were looked at in particular detail.
Kerr Reservoir is owned by the federal government; Lake Gaston and Roanoke Rapids Reservoir are owned by Virginia Power. In May 1994, the Department of Commerce over-ruled the objection lodged by North Carolina. In July 1993, the FERC released a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) which indicated that the project would have no significant impact. What is the status of the Corps of Engineers permit?The City received a permit from the Corps of Engineers in 1984. Source: Watersheds in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Virginia 1:250,000 scale topographic map, Map 1-18: City of Virginia Beach Sources and Service Area, Shoreline Management Plan For The Roanoke Rapids And Gaston Hydropower Project, Ground Water Withdrawal Permitting Program, The Virginia Beach Shallow Ground-Water Study, Update on Virginia Beach Pipeline Withdrawals, The Lake Gaston Pipeline meets the water needs of the City of Virginia Beach in a very big way, Building New Water Supply Capacity: What Works and What Doesn't, Environmental Impact Statement - Lower Virginia Peninsula Regional Raw Water Supply Plan, Investigation of the Lower Roanoke River Basin, Virginia and North Carolina, The Virginia Coastal Plain Hydrogeologic Framework, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia Roanoke River Basin Advisory Committee, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Water supply helped Virginia Beach to flourish, The Pathology of Property Norms: Living Within Nature's Boundaries. Does this mean the Lake Gaston Project have an impact upon the lake level at Kerr Reservoir?Yes. There was still plenty of water remaining in the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean for the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, but it was 25-35 parts/thousand (2.5-3.5%) salt, and desalinization costs increase dramatically as salinity increases.12. Will the Lake Gaston Project impact river flows?The project will have no effect on any river flows in Virginia. no impact on lake levels in Lake Gaston. Below are links to various agencies, managed lakes and lake level information sites. In order for Virginia Power to voluntarily convey an easement to Virginia Beach for the intake structure in Lake Gaston, FERC approval was needed. Virginia Beach has obtained local consents from all six jurisdictions.
The agency also noted that many of the prior environmental reviews were now dated. Norfolk's water sources include reservoirs in Virginia Beach, plus the Western Reservoirs of Lake Prince, Lake Burnt Mills, and Western Branch Reservoir in the City of Suffolk and Isle of Wight County, In addition, Norfolk pulls water from the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers and four deep wells located in Suffolk (which were drilled after a drought in the 1960's).2, water sources for City of Norfolk include interbasin transfers from Nottoway, Blackwater, and Nansemond rivers Virginia Beach was able to negotiate a settlement with various stakeholders, including Dominion Power and North Carolina, in order to obtain FERC re-licensing, with provisions for reduced water withdrawals during droughts, annual weed control on Lake Gaston, and continuation of recreation activities on the lake.8. What is the status of the financing of the project?The entire pipeline construction was paid by revenue from the water utility. The city started pumping again from Lake Gaston at the end of May, four months after the spill.14, shallow aquifers at Virginia Beach Would not desalting processes be more environmentally acceptable than the Lake Gaston Project?Not necessarily so. Source: Virginia Beach Public Works Lake Gaston Water Supply Pipeline, North Carolina tried to use its authority under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) to block the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from authorizing the pumping station on Pea Hill Creek. The potential of uranium being processed along a tributary of the Roanoke River triggered alarm in Hampton Roads. Both agencies have determined that the project is needed, is the best project from a health and environmental aspect and will not significantly impact the environment. However, residents of the rural Virginia counties near Lake Gaston opposed the deal because they feared loss of "their water" and new environmental constraints designed to protect water quality in the reservoir.
The study concluded that Kerr Reservoir (Buggs Island Lake) would trap 90% of the uranium tailings, but the city might be forced to stop using water from Lake Gaston for 1-2 years.13, in 2014 a coal ash spill polluted the Dan River (a tributary of the Roanoke River) and Virginia Beach stopped pumping water from Lake Gaston Caution: Do not enter the tailrace section directly below hydroelectric stations. What is the status of the permits?Virginia Beach has every federal, state and local permit needed to construct and operate the project.
To meet the needs of its expanding population, the City of Suffolk built an "electrodialysis reversal" plant to desalinate brackish groundwater from the Middle Potomac Aquifer in 1990. During certain dry times, when downstream reductions resulting from the City's project might have an impact in the lower Roanoke River, the City's withdrawal will come from augmented flows provided from upstream Kerr Reservoir. They are Brunswick County, Greensville County, Jarratt, Sussex County, Southampton County and Isle of Wight County. Sodium levels would be so high that the product water might have to be desalted a second time in a brackish water desalting process raising the costs even further. It means we avoided sustained high water levels that threaten the shoreline and docks. It is approximately one-fourth the average output of a medium size power plant. The tourism industry could be affected by fears of "glow-in-the-dark" drinking water, even if there was no real possibility of radioactive contamination reaching customers in Oceanfront hotels. ShareShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email, Problem displaying Facebook posts. 1.
The primary purpose of Lake Gaston (LKG) and Roanoke Rapids (RR) Lake is power generation (other purposes include recreation and flood control). In the context of today's wetland protection policies, it is virtually impossible to build new reservoirs, particularly in the coastal plain. The settlement opportunity died when Governor Allen of Virginia refused to call a special meeting of the General Assembly, because Democrats who controlled the legislature would not limit the session to just the Lake Gaston issue and then adjourn.
In July 1995, the FERC released a final EIS which indicated that the project was needed, would have no significant impact, and that there were no practical alternatives with less environmental impacts. The validity of the U.S. Department of Commerce CZMA decision allowing the project to go forward. Visit Ginas Garden in downtown Warrenton, NC!
This means that not only was Dominion managing the lake level to at or below the Good Neighbor" policy target of 201.5', but most of the time it was down in the Normal range! A lawsuit in state court in which several legislators and property owners tried to block the project alleging that it is not allowed by law.
The FERC determined that the Lake Gaston project would not have significant impacts on the environment based upon the data it had available. Eighty-two percent of Virginia Beach's water demand is residential and the bulk of the commercial and industrial demand are for service industries such as hotels, restaurants and shopping centers which must use potable water in any event. During all that time in Flood Operations, Dominion was allowed to let LKG levels rise and yet there were less than a half dozen days that were above the normal range! Moss Lake is owned and managed by the City of Kings Mountain in Cleveland County. When the Corps of Engineers generates hydropower and releases water through the Kerr Dam, Dominion does not store the water and then, When water is released through the Kerr turbines, the same amount of water is allowed to flow through turbines downstream at Gaston Dam where Dominion generates electricity.
These license requirements did not change as a result of the project. Un-Neighborly Conduct: Why Can't Virginia Beach and North Carolina Be Friends?
It would also generate a large waste stream which must be disposed of in the Chesapeake Bay or the Atlantic Ocean. In its legal documents, Appalachian Power cited concerns regarding states rights and riparian rights. The City of Norfolk processes the water for Chesapeake/Virginia Beach, but did not join the Lake Gaston project. There is a big difference. Source: Hampton Roads Regional Water Supply Plan (Map 3-2, Major Watersheds), Still, North Carolina has consistently objected to diverting Roanoke River water to Virginia Beach. Keep Reading, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Instagram (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window). 10.
Located in front of Pointe Realty Group Warrenton- 201 S Main St. Everything is locally grown here in Warrenton by Gina Woodhouse! The amount of brackish groundwater that the City could develop without causing adverse groundwater impacts in southeast Virginia and saltwater intrusion is very limited. Please remember to stay 300 feet away from the upstream and downstream sides of the dam and powerhouse. The validity of the FERC decision approving the project. In other words, the Lake Gaston Project reduces average releases from the Lake Gaston Dam, but it does not reduce lake levels in Lake Gaston. About one-fourth comes from North Carolina. For more information call 704-482-7926. Inter-basin diversion was not a new concept for North Carolina. The project was not built, and no legal precedent was set.4, 50 years before the Lake Gaston pipeline, a water diversion project to prevent North Carolina water from flowing into Virginia was proposed on the New River (red X) Are not the costs of desalting decreasing as new technologies are developing and shouldn't the City factor these potential improvements into its decision making process?The City has considered the newest and most innovative technology that is commercially available. Water from a seawater desalting plant, if it used the reverse osmosis process, would be very high in sodium and more corrosive than current supplies. In 2012-13, the owner of a rich uranium deposit at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County, 190 miles to the west, proposed modifying state regulations to allow mining and milling of uranium ore.
Because of the flow regulation provided by Kerr Reservoir, downstream reservoirs were then feasible for hydro-electric power generation.
8.
Why doesn't Virginia Beach desalt brackish groundwater?Virginia Beach studied the feasibility of desalting brackish groundwater from deep wells screened in the cretaceous aquifer. The project will have no effect on low flows or FERC mandated minimum releases. Einsenhower's Secretary of the Interior, Douglas J. McKay, was labelled by opponents as "Giveaway Doug McKay.". To report an EMERGENCY dial 911 and email us at, 07/20/2022-1U-Full-7:00-21:00
The majority of LGA's work is done at the committee level.
Source: Norfolk Department of Utilities, Norfolk supplies drinking water to other community water systems and military bases in Hampton Roads (The Supreme Court declined to certify an appeal). The critical path construction was completed July 1994. In the end, both FERC and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in the Department of Commerce (NOAA is the Federal "umpire" that determines if projects are consistent with a state's coastal zone management plan) approved the pipeline project, just as the Corps of Engineers had done earlier. These included desalinating brackish or salty seawater, drilling local groundwater wells, recycling wastewater from local sewage plants, and building new impoundments on the Assamoosick Swamp or the Appomattox River. This ruling was in response to a lawsuit alleging that the 1994 CZMA decision was flawed. All remaining construction was completed in December 1997. The Lake Gaston project was sized large enough to eliminate Virginia Beach's dependency on Norfolk for water supply, and at one point Norfolk almost sabotaged the pipeline project by claiming it had surplus water that could meet most of the Virginia Beach needs. The City evaluated the alternatives using six criteria: quantity, quality, cost, environmental impact, reliability, and institutional issues.
If the Lake Gaston Project does not have a detrimental impact on the lake level at Lake Gaston, then where does the water come from?The water that flows through the Gaston pipeline comes from the water flowing Would desalination plants be more reliable than the Lake Gaston Project?No, they would not be. 4. Many communities on the southwest coast of Florida desalt their water. Portsmouth built Lakes Meade, Kilby, Cohoon, and Speights Run on the upper reaches of the Nansemond River, and drilled five deep wells to tap local groundwater. In reality, borrow pits are little more than large shallow wells and large-scale use of water in borrow pits would have much the same effect on the shallow aquifers as would development of the shallow groundwater system.
lake gaston dam release schedule
